EARLY TIMBERED BUILDINGS
OF THE HUDDERSFIELD DISTRICT
BY JAMES WALTON B.Sc., F.S.A.

CRUCK-TRUSSED BUILDINGS - CRUCK-TRUSSED BARN BUILDINGS

UPPER OLDFIELD BARN, HONLEY
No cruck-trussed houses of more than one bay have survived
in our district but there are a number of barns of three
or four bays. Upper Oldfield, a delightful unspoilt hamlet
on the moor edge above Honley, is a veritable museum of
local folk architecture ranging from an early cruck-trussed
barn, in which the nuns of Kirklees stored their tithes,
to the long mullion-windowed houses of the hand loom weavers.

The cruck trusses of the barn are of the type in which
the curcks meet at the apex and are joined by a collar-beam
and a tie-beam which carries the lower purlins on its free
ends. It differs from Far Field Head only in the more massive
nature of the crucks themselves, which measure 1ft. 6ins.
By 10ins. At the base. Originally there were four cruck
trusses dividing the barn into three bays: but one gable
truss was replaced by a stone wall at the time when the
barn was encased in stone. Addy has suggested that the number
of bays to which a land-holder was entitled depended on
the size of his holding in the common fields and that he
was taxed on this number of bays. If such was the case then
the length of his building was fixed and more bays could
only be added as his extra wealth and status allowed. There
was nothing, however, to prevent a landholder from increasing
the width of his building. The distance apart of the cruck
feet was limited by the size of timber obtainable and could
not be increased. Extra width could only be achieved by
extending stone walls, so producing “outshuts”.
This gave rise to a nave-and-aisles plan with the crucks
standing freely in the center of the building to form the
nave. The wall-plates carried on the extended ends of the
tie-beams were thus reduced to lower purlins.

To have extended the rafters at their original slope would
have resulted in extremely low side walls, a state of affairs
which was prevented somewhat by raising the tie-beam and
decreasing the pitch of the roof. The following figures
indicate to what extent the tie-beam was raised and the
roof pitch decreased:-

HEIGHT
TO TIE-BEAM

ROOF
PITCH

BUILDINGS
WITHOUT OUTSHUTS

FAR
FIELD HEAD

5ft.
5ins.

43
deg.

CARR
HOUSE FARM

4ft.
10ins.

42
deg.

BUILDINGS
WITH OUTSHUTS

UPPER
OLDFIELD

8ft.

35
deg.

SNOWGATE
HEAD

7ft.
5ins.

38
deg.

The plan of Upper Oldfield barn is typical of early barns
throughout the district whether they are cruck-trussed or
frame-trussed. On outshut, the narrower of the two, was
included in the barn itself. The other outshut served as
a mistal for the cattle on one side of the main entrance
are recessed, thus affording greater height to allow the
entry of loaded wagons of hay or corn.

A second door, the “winnowing door”, faces
the first and the space between the two, the “threshing-stead”,
was kept clear for threshing and winnowing. Even to-day
some small farmers still thresh their corn with a flail
and at the beginning of the present century the practice
was quite widespread in our district. The corn was spread
out on the threshing – stead and beaten with a flail
until the grains were dislodged from the ears. The straw
was gathered up and so also was the mixture of grain and
chaff. Then, on a suitable day, both sets of doors were
opened to create a breeze; the mixture of chaff and grain
was placed in a basket and gently agitated so as to cause
a steady steam to pour over the lip of the basket. As it
fell the breeze carried away the light chaff and the grain
dropped straight down into a pile.

GREENHILL BANK BARN, NEWMILL
This barn, cut out of Greenhill bank, is almost hidden from
view, merging as it does into the hillside itself. It is
a delightful example of a four-bayed, cruck-trussed barn,
almost identical in plan with Upper Oldfield. Its cruck
trusses are of the same type but the tie-beam height and
roof pitch differ considerably from those in the preceding
table. The tie-beam is high, 9ft. 5ins. Above ground level,
but the roof pitch is at the relatively steep angle of 45
degrees. Normally this would result in either a very narrow
outshut or a low outshut wall, but this is not the case
where the cruck trusses are lifted on to high stone stylobats,
so increasing the height of the ridge-tree and of every
part of the structure.

At Greenhill Bank the cruck feet rest on stone stylobats
5ft. 2ins. Above ground level, thus raising the ridge-tree
a corresponding amount higher than in the cottages at Far
Field Head and Carr House Farm. The practice of standing
the cruck trusses on wooden blocks or single stone slabs
no doubt originated to prevent the feet from decaying. Where
stylobats several blocks high are used their function seems
to have been not only to preserve the crucks but also to
make the best use of timber; for the length of a cruck was
limited by the size of the trees available and the only
method of increasing the height of the ridge-tree beyond
this limit was by raising the crucks on stylobats, as was
done at Greenhill Bank.

Greenhill Bank barn is set at right angles to the contours;
this necessitated cutting back the hillside at the upper
end and building a high wall at the lower end to keep the
ridge-tree level. Such buildings, with their lower gable
looking on to the valley, are common in hilly and mountainous
countries such as Lake Distict, Wales and particularly Switzerland
and Scandinavia. Invariably in such cases the livestock
are housed at the lower end of the building underneath the
floor of the barn itself; such is the case at Greenhill
Bank.

In plan Greenhill Bank is similar to upper Oldfield except
that it lacks its symmetry, having two bays above the threshing-stead
and one below. The main entrance is recessed and is flanked
by outshuts accommodating the mistals and stables. The upper
outshuts accommodating the mistals and stables. The upper
outshut does not extend to the end of the building, presumably
owing to the nature of the site. The lower end of the building,
preoccupied by a mistal, reached by doorways from the field
at the rear and the road, as well as by two steps from the
threshing-stead. The hay “moo” was stored on
a raised floor above this end mistal. A peculiar feature
of this building is the flagstone paving of the two upper
bays which are clearly marked off from the threshing-stead
by a line of flagstones set on edge. Connected with this
is the fact that the part of the central cruck truss between
the tie-beam and the collar-beam is filled with a riven
oak lath and plaster screen nailed to a number of upright
oak rods. This screen coupled with the paved floor, suggests
that the two upper bays may at one period have been used
as a dwelling but the absence of hearth or windows indicates
that such occupation must have been early – before
either of these amenities was considered necessary. Such
an arrangement of upper dwelling and lower mistals is general
in mountain areas where the gables face the valleys but
definite proof of this at Greenhill Bank is lacking. There
may be some other explanation for the flagged floor and
the lath and plaster partition.

SNOWGATE HEAD BARN, NEW MILL
This barn has three cruck trusses each with an extended
tie-beam and a single collar-beam. The crucks are much more
angular than any others in the Huddersfield district, but
they were never employed as true elbow crucks in the sense
that the more vertical portion carried the wall whilst the
roof rested on the upper sloping part. At the base they
measure 1ft. 5ins. By 7 ½ ins., indicating that each
pair of crucks was sawn from the same tree. This probably
represents a later tradition, replacing the use of separate
trees for each cruck, although it may also simply indicate
that larger trees were available in the district. When the
stone walls were built the ends of the tie-beams were embedded
in the walls and the wall-plates were raised about two feet
on to the tops of the walls themselves, thus necessitating
considerable alterations which have made any interpretation
of the framework difficult.

CROFT HOUSE FARM BARN, SCHOLES
This barn has two cruck trusses of the same pattern as Upper
Oldfield, Greenhill Bank and other barns so far discussed.
Presumably one truss decayed and then the tops were sawn
off and replaced by a queen-post truss. Insufficient evidence
remains to attempt any reconstruction of the original building.

WOOLDALE HALL BARN
Only part of one cruck truss now remains. When the barn
was demolished the date 1593 was found carved on the ridge-tree.
The very fact that the date was carved on the ridge-tree
and not in a more conspicuous position, suggests that it
was the date when the ridge-tree was replaced and not the
date of the original building.

NETHER END, DENBY DALE
The building at Nether End Farm, now used as a mistal, is
a simple rectangular structure of four bays with four cruck
trusses. One gable, as so often happens, has no truss. Whether
this was due to the fact that one gable truss decayed or
whether another bay was added when the stone wall was built
it is impossible to determine. The cruck trusses themselves
have extended tie-beams carrying the wall-plates and no
two collar-beams, the upper collar being notched in a manner
similar to the one at Dean Head. Three holes underneath
the collar-beam, provided to take the upright rods of the
wattle walling as at Far Field Head, afford the only evidence
of the nature of the early walling. The present stone walls
were built in 1663, assuming that the date on the gable
is the date when the change took place.